Remembering Good Times Of Cubs `89

October 23, 1989|By Gary Koca.

SCHAUMBURG — At at time when most of us are letting our momentary depression cause us to bash the Chicago Cubs, Andre Dawson and the rest of the players for again failing to bring a pennant and world championship to Chicago, there are a couple of things we should remember.

If someone had come to us on opening day when the team had gone 9-23 in spring training and guaranteed us an Eastern Division championship but a loss in five games in the playoffs, how many of us would have refused the offer?

Here`s what I remember about the 1989 season:

- The sight of Shawon Dunston making an over-the-shoulder catch and throwing back to first base to double the runner in a game-ending double play against the Mets.

- The Cubs winning a game in Cincinnati in the top of the ninth on a single by Jerome Walton after there were two outs and nobody on.

- The Cubs scoring 10 runs against Houston to make up a 9-0 deficit and win 10-9.

- Convincing myself that they had blown the lead for good against the Cardinals in early September after losing to the Cardinals after they had built up a 7-1 lead, only to have them win the next two games and take off from there.

- Zimmer`s diet and facial expressions.

- My nervous stomach every time Mitch Williams came into a game to protect a lead.

- The sheer grace and beauty with which Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace play the game.

- The joy I felt watching 24 men who were predicted to be losers come together in a total team effort to become champions of the East.

- Watching a Cubs game on a Saturday afternoon and going to see ``Field of Dreams`` that evening and leaving the theater teary-eyed as I saw the undeniable link between those two events.

In an era when we suffer through the unabashed commercialism, gladiator-like mentality, occasional meanness and undeserved crassness of

professional football, thank God for the simple, pure, beautiful sport of baseball.

No matter what happens in the future, I will never forget the joy and thrills of the 1989 season, baseball`s greatest palace, Wrigley Field, and my favorite team, the Chicago Cubs. That is why, night baseball or day baseball, heroes or goats, win or lose, millions of followers or just a few selective die-hard fans, it makes no difference to me: I will be a Chicago Cubs fan for the rest of my life.